Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-02
GREER COUNTY LANDS.
Continued from second page.


ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE,
Nov. %, 1886.
Col. James NJ. Anderson, Waco, Tex.
DEAR SIR hoped to see you again on
Saturday evening before you left the city
but failed to do SO. l have assumed sll
along, feeling authorized, perhaps, by
conversations between Us, that the case
Of the State of Texas VS.. j NJ. Day ct al,
can be taken, ss soon ss possible, to the
supreme court, taking it to Tyler, if it can
be got ready, il not, taken to Calves
ton, so that there can be an
eariy disposition OF it. Iwould suppose
it to be to the interest of the defendant
as well as Of the state to have is speedily
disposed of. do not think it Will take 3
great while to get out the records and
suppose it will take no considerable time
to brief 1t, after the case has been dis
cussed to the extent to which it has.
hope that it will suit you to concur with
me in seeking an early disposition Of the
case on appeal. l am, very truly,
JOHN D. TkMPLEToN.
OFPICE OF
ANDERSON, FLINT & ANDERsoN,{
WACO, TEX, ov. %, 1856
Hon. John D Templeion, Austin, Tex.
DEAR SIR-Your favor of 22d received,
From the beginning OF the above entitled
cause until the present, l have regarded
time as highly essential to the interest of
defendan Eighteen or twenty thousand
cattle growing on grass, hung high up in
litigation, is much to be preferred to
grass trampled under foot by declara-
ton of no title-made by supreme court.
Hence, we will agree to no Fastening of
proceedings. The state is not suffering,
aud il 1t were we are In no mood to hasten
alienation. Truly yours, [Signedl
JANIS M ANDERSON.
Instead of accepting the proposition
and Fastening decision by the supreme
court TO reverse the ruling because
wrong, an appeal is taken from the decree
of District Judge Walker to the Twentieth
! Legislature, certainly because his ruling
was right, and notice Is being served
through the public press Of Austin on ell
mankind that an "spplicati"n Will be
made TO the next legislature for the pas
sage of an act or acts, IS the case may be,
| for the relief of Texas veterans, and the
! holders of lands located or patented, or
simply located, by virtue OF veteran
certificates in Greer county, Tex.
The object and purpose and extent of
said act or sets will be to validate snd
confirm to the owner or owners the title
to all Glands in Greer county, Tex which
have been located or patented by virtue
Ct veteran certificates which have been Is
sued under the act OF March 10, 1881,
to CONFIRM the title to lands in Greer
county located by virtue of veteran Ger
tifcates and which the sltJrney-geleral
has sought to disturb "
Now, the alto nev-general, l may say
here orc for ell, has never sought to dis
turb any valid title. He has simply
sought q judicial unmssking
OF the so-called pa'en's and
pretended titles, which Were being used,
as have stated above, for mischieyous
purposes. Why it is proposed to leave
out of the scope of the benevolence of the
legislature the holders of certificates
granted under the vetern act of 1879, is
not disclose and i. is hard to conjecture.
The certificates are as meritOrious as
those granted under the act of 1881, berg
granted to the same class # persons end
for the same supposed services
In this matter there should be no mis-
take about the meaning Of terms. This
notice speaks CT confirming titles and
validating patents. Now, be it under
stood that there are no titles 10 con-
firm and no patents to validate.
The patents and the CT Tim Of title made
under them are and haYe slwsys been
void, abso utely, UUqualifedly and I'M
conditional. void. Void not only "a to
the government, but as to all men. They
are "mere YdCuitie5.' The pstents are
no evidences of title to anything or
against anything. An Indian squaw or
ner naked psppoose could grant just as
good title as the pretended patenteeS
nave. The amount OF it al is that the
legislature viii be asked to give to the
claimants under the so-csllaj patents the
lands they claim. Tle leg stature has
the same right to give it to any other mau
al it hiss to the pretended pate2tees. The
difference betTeenthe p&teEtCes and other
men is that the other men have not st
tespted to appropriate the LAID in viola
ton of plain statues, while the patentees
have attemp ed to appropriate it ia viola
ton Of the plsiu statutes Can the ltgi5-
lature donate lands to few favored in
dipiduals aud corporations that have been
appropriated to common school purposes?
II it can do so will it? What sre the
equities OF these claimants TO the land?
TIE certificates, the location OF which
they seek &c have validated, were all
is.ued more than two and one-haf years
after tue reservation OF the land,
50 that there never was s time
when they could have been locGted there
on. No man procured or bought one of
these certificates, relying Oh legal right
TO locate il on the land. Had the c,r,f-
Gates been issued first, then the land re-
served, there might have been some talk
f an equitAble claim; but that was not
the case. Hundreds of thousands =!
acres of certificates are outstanding,
many of them in the hands OF Innocent
purchaser, that we're issued before the
reese walton of Greer county. II there
exist an equity, q moral right, right in
conscience to locate any certificates on
the land, It would seem to be in their
favor rather than OF those certificates,
coming into existence Wien tae
grantees knew the reservation had long
since been made, but no kind OF ce.tlti
Gates should go there. II Is passing
strange state of facts on which to SEEK 10
ground moral right. The land was re-
served; locations on it were forbidden;
but locations were nevertheless mad,
and the claimants of those locations now
say TO the legislature that because we
nave made the locations in violation OF
law we therefore have an equity which
you should mature into 4 !, gal right and
protect against disturbance Dy the sttor-
general. Such legislation would be
a most palpable premium paid in
land for violating the laws
of the country. Eqpities are not
made If such questionable stuff. Il mSy
be that some Of the certificates ar
barred so that they cannot be located